Monday, 15 December 2008

More production

In my overly optimistic listing of things I had to knit before Christmas, I forgot some things. For instance, Mr. Needles. There was nothing on the list for him. On the list I keep inside my head, there was.

I worked on hats this weekend. Only the black and white hat was completed by Friday. By Saturday morning, before I headed off to work, there was a second hat complete. The third hat was completed early Sunday morning. The brim of hat 4 is on my needles now. My plan is to make this last hat be of stripes all the colours in it from the other 3 hats, plus at least one of his own. I have plenty of each colour left on this particular pile of yarn, except for the Big Fabel that Son 3's mittens were made out of. There will be but a single stripe of that through this hat, two perhaps, but only if I get really really lucky.

This last hat might look like an after thought hat, a hat to use up all the bits and pieces, but it's purpose is to tie all 3 hats together. Each hat is tied by colour to the others, and yet still is unique. This last hat, is the daddy of them all, containing strands from all of the other hats, tying all things together.

The original plan for this suite of hats was to include mittens. And I will make mittens for them all, just not for Christmas. Even if I knit every moment of every day but for my work hours, (this is what I plan anyway) there is no way I will get to mittens. Maybe after Christmas.

Sunday afternoon was the store Christmas get together, and I found myself in need of a single yarn travel project to keep my Holiday knitting on track.

I started working on this scarf for my mom. The yarn is one of the prettiest colourways from Colinette. Even though the yarn is fine, this simple ribbing is making working it a breeze. It is actually going to be more of a short cowl than a scarf, since it will be short and the ends are meant to pass through a slit in the fabric and I want them to flare out a bit to keep everything in place. I want it to hug her neck and bolster the open neckline of her coat, without the excess fabric of a scarf. I am really hoping to get to mittens for her too.

There is another important scarf to complete this week too, though I am wondering if that scarf might not be more valuable to the giftee as a hat. It may morph into a hat today, and possibly mittens, which would be about the same amount of knitting hours as a scarf. The weight of the decision is going to rely on one factor and one factor alone. If I can find the scarf yarn in the depths of my stash, it will stay a scarf. If not, it shall become a hat and mittens. (I searched two hours yesterday and couldn't find the yarn, I have no idea where the heck I put it)

I should be feeling rushed and hectic, but strangely I don't. I'm feeling almost comfortable with it all. Life is good. Very very good.

About Me

'Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.'
- Robertson Davies
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These are my words to live by.
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When I was a kid one of my earliest memories of grandmas house was of all the aunties getting together to make wool quilts. My Uncle took off the table top and set up the quilt frame somehow on the table legs. We kids would sit under the table and watched the needles go through, and the hands turning moving swiftly along. Seeing a quilt being made from the underside is not something you forget. Sleeping under something that you saw being made right from the carding of the wool is not something you forget either. My Auntie Lorraine who loved to embroider and crochet taught my sister and I outline stitch embroidery for tea towels, pillow cases, and dresser scarves. There were always crocheted doilies and antimacassars at her house too. I have been fascinated by needle and threads since then. I can't pick a favourite among string and needle things. I sew, do crosstitch, needlepoint, hardanger, blackwork, and embroideries of all kinds. I crochet and tat, and now I knit too. Did I leave anything out? Tell me. I'll probably need to learn that too. It's a compulsion. And now I spin. Did I mention I have a small loom? And now a much bigger loom? Like I said, this is clearly a compulsion.